Farscape cancelled

The Sci-Fi Channel seems to have declined to pick up the fifth season of Farscape, on short notice. I heard about it through Warren Ellis’s “Bad Signal” newsletter:

And sci-fi leatherqueen BLAKES SEVEN/ BUCK ROGERS rip FARSCAPE -- in space, no-one can hear you speak with an Australian accent -- has evidently also been shitcanned, and confusion seems to reign as to why. I've seen several episodes, and it's a wildly uneven piece of work. It has some good gags, some good dialogue, and some hard-working actors, but it's eaten up by its own continuity and the usual mediocre tangle of soap-opera elements to the point where later episodes are unintelligible. That sort of situation means that by season three or four you're writing for the fans, and the series concept doesn't allow for closure. If the crew aren't running away from bastards any more, there's no series.

He’s right about the continuity; I can’t imagine trying to hook a new viewer on Farscape without a couple dozen episodes of prep work, and that means it’s tough for the show to attract new viewers. I don’t think he’s quite right about the closure — looks like Ellis didn’t see the depository arc, or any of the other episodes where the crew goes active instead of just running away.

The short notice means the writers won’t even be able to wrap up the major plotlines or give us a decent ending.